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College loses respected sociology professor

Dr. M. Gilbert Dunn, a revered member of the Roanoke College faculty, died Aug. 18, 2017.

Dunn was a member of the Department of Sociology at the College. He joined the Roanoke faculty in 1993, after teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Southern Mississippi and in Iceland, Italy and Germany with the University of Maryland University College Europe.

Dunn's interests included religion, theory and mass communication. At Roanoke, he taught Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Popular Culture, The Information Society, Social Theory, Senior Symposium and Senior Seminar, and served as the coordinator of the Information Analysis concentration. Dunn also co-authored a monograph on media research, and had been awarded grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dunn graduated in 1971 from Ohio Wesleyan University and earned an M.A. from Tulane University and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Nu chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Roanoke College in 2004, co-writing the final, successful application.

One of Dunn's former students, William Stowell, created a YouTube channel featuring a video of Dunn speaking to the college's Elderscholar program about turning points of the civil rights movement. Here's the link to that video: https://youtu.be/pTcvPM4K364. "My hope is that you will make others aware of its existence so that they may benefit from the Professor's vast knowledge base," Stowell said in an email to President Mike Maxey. He also is providing a copy to Fintel Library for the archives.

Gil Dunn left a last legacy with many students and the Roanoke community. He will be missed.